Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

C orey pulled onto his mom's road quite a bit later, after they'd gone to the library and returned the compass to its designated shelf in the archives and then had a celebratory burger and beer at the Muddy River Inn.

It felt a bit like a date. Like they were a couple. The fact that didn't freak him out—that he actually liked it—had Corey believing even more firmly that he and Josie needed to give this thing between them a try.

After today, he was even more in awe of Josie's mind than he had been. And that was saying something since he'd been pretty impressed with her already. Had been since they'd been in high school.

She'd been brilliant today. Amazingly, this whole thing—the gala, the compass, everything—might actually turn out okay.

He was about to compliment her for the third, or fourth time during their drive home when his foot hit the brake hard enough to send them both careening toward the dashboard.

"What's wrong?" Josie asked, looking through the windshield and over the hood of the car, as if to see if he'd hit something.

She needn't have worried. No small animals were in danger. But one big annoying human might be because just as Corey pulled into his mom's driveway, Kirk's big stupid oversized SUV had been pulling into Josie's.

"What's he doing here?" Corey grit out between his teeth.

Josie's eyes widened. "Oh, crap. I promised Kirk I'd go to the drive-in with him. Remember? That was for tonight."

He hadn't remembered, thanks to his wonky brain and a whole lot of activity that had kept them both running at full speed, but he sure remembered now and he got angry all over again.

"You're not going to go," he said, more of a statement than a question.

"Well, I feel like I should. I promised. And he drove all the way over here."

Jeezus. They were sleeping together. Practically dating. And she was going out with another guy?

"Are you kidding me?" he asked. After all they'd done?

He realized his mistake immediately when she pivoted to look at him and her eyes narrowed.

She released her seatbelt and turned her whole body to face him as she said, "You don't get to tell me what to do. Or whom I can see."

His breath coming faster, anger rose within him. "I shouldn't have to. You should be smart enough to figure that out on your own. Josie, we had sex ," he hissed.

Her snort of derision was followed by, "That didn't stop you from ghosting me for ten years after the last time we did that."

Then she opened the car door and got out.

After one more glare at him, she slammed the door hard enough to rock the car.

Josie strode directly to Kirk's car and damned if she didn't get right in, leaving Corey feeling sick enough to vomit.

* * *

Hours passed. Hours which began with him stalking the drive-in theater's social media. He found out which movies were playing this weekend and searched what their run times were. Then tried to calculate how long the intermission between them would be, all to determine what time Josie might be home.

He stayed up long after his mother had gone to bed—which wasn't all that hard. He was used to the night shift, even if he had been on leave for long enough to start to get back into a normal routine.

He sat in the dark living room staring out the window at Josie's driveway like a stalker. Like a lunatic. Like a man who feared he'd caught feelings and then watched the woman he felt them for drive away for a date with another man.

Corey sat there, miserable, sick, shaking, and waited.

And waited.

One o'clock came and went. As did one-fifteen. One-twenty. The theater was just eight miles away and the second movie, according to his best guess, should have ended by one in the morning. One-ten the latest. Yet Josie still wasn't home.

He considered calling the Baldwin's house in hopes Quinn would answer so he could express his concern to her big brother. What stopped him was the fact he was less concerned for her safety at the local drive-in in the next town and far more concerned that she was parked somewhere with Kirk. Doing…things together.

Things he'd done with her himself.

The thought of Josie having sex with Kirk had Corey swallowing against the dryness in his mouth. His throat felt tight. So did his chest. His stomach didn't feel any better.

Finally headlights illuminated the street.

He drew back into the darkened room just far enough he could see them through the window but they wouldn't see him watching.

The problem was, he couldn't see them inside the dark car any more than they could see him in the pitch-black living room next door peering out the narrow space between the sheer white curtains and the window's molding.

She didn't get out of the car right away.

It was all he could do to not stalk over there and bang on the vehicle's window. Pound on the glass until they stopped whatever they were doing in there. Until the damn glass shattered all over Kirk's smug pretty face.

When he felt about to crawl out of his skin she opened the door. The interior dome light showed her and Kirk inside. She leaned over and gave him a hug and Corey held his breath.

He didn't see a kiss—not that that meant there hadn't been one at some point. Then she got out, slammed the door and with a little wave, headed for the house.

The moment Kirk's car was out of the driveway and out of sight, Corey took off running. Out the door of his mom's house and across the lawn.

Barefoot and in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt, he caught Josie just before she closed the door with her on the inside.

"Did you have sex with him?" he blurted out.

It was what he most wanted to know. But it wasn't the question he'd wanted to ask. How was your night? Can we talk? Are you and I okay?

Any of those would have been a better option. Those choices probably wouldn't have yielded him the reaction he got from Josie now.

"You don't have the right to ask me that."

Didn't he though? It sure as hell felt like he did. His silence had her drawing in a breath and shaking her head.

"Go to sleep, Corey." She moved to close the door, but he stuck his hand out and blocked it.

"Are you going to see him again?" Another bad choice, but he needed to know.

"Maybe I will. Now goodnight." This time she did manage to get the door closed.

He heard the lock engage and turned back toward home.

The level of devastation he felt was shocking in its intensity. How could something hurt this much?

He'd lost friends. Good ones. And that had hurt. Of course it did. But with it came, eventually, a level of acceptance. Of knowing there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could have done. They were gone. And it was out of his power to change that.

Somehow knowing Josie was still right there, alive and well but not with him, and he still couldn't control the situation was infinitely worse.

He couldn't do it. Couldn't be next door and watch her go out on date after date with Kirk. Not after they had been together.

This mental anguish and pain couldn't be good for his brain's healing. It certainly wasn't good for his stomach. He headed right for the medicine cabinet and grabbed the bottle of antacids. And his heart—this definitely wasn't good for that organ.

Who knew love could hurt this damn much?

Love.

Didn't it figure? He finally let himself fall for a woman and she broke his heart.

He booted up his mother's computer in the den, the little room she used for paying bills and stuff, and navigated to a travel website.

Last minute flights were outrageous. But Amtrak could get him to Florida. He didn't care how long it took. As long as he was away from here. And away from her.